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“Spectre is an internationally applauded film, [but] again Pahalaj Nihalani messes it up by shading it with his own thought process.

“Nihalani’s action should not be a reflection of my choices. I feel it’s a mockery of the freedom of a filmmaker.”

A source at Sony Pictures Entertainment acknowledges these changes have been made, but casts doubts over CBFC’s standard of measurement for such scenes:

“The censor board had nothing against James Bond kissing. But the length of the kisses were found to be unnecessarily excessive.

“We heard that Ranbir Kapoor’s kissing scenes in Tamasha (2015) has also been reduced by half. We wonder how the Censor Board decides how much kissing is enough.”

Moviegoers in India are no stranger to the board’s eyebrow-raising decisions when it comes to sensitive or sexual content in films.

Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) suffered a full ban in the country for its ‘dialogue’, even though a much less sexual version was submitted for the board’s review.

Another James Bond film, Casino Royale, also faced a similar issue in 2006 when some of the love scenes were reportedly ‘trimmed’.

However, the cuts were believed to be proposed by Sony Pictures Releasing India, as they wanted to make sure the film was granted a U/A certificate and reach a bigger audience.

Sharmila Tagore, chairman of CBFC, commented at the time:

“We are a layered society, so what may be taken easily by an urban audience may not go down well with those watching the same film in suburban areas.”

Well, the Spectre cuts have definitely not gone down well with Twitter users in India.

One can imagine the rage of the franchise’s fans not being allowed to watch the full version of the film, after waiting two additional weeks for its release – all to avoid clashing with Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.

A new hashtag, #SanskariJamesBond (‘virtuous’ James Bond), begins to trend in protest with a humorous twist.

Scarlett is an avid writer and pianist. Originally from Hong Kong, egg tart is her cure for homesickness. She loves music and film, enjoys travelling and watching sports. Her motto is “Take a leap, chase your dream, eat more cream.”